INTRODUCTION
[52-53] It is now sufficiently well known what the mutual relations of our social forces were during the epoch of the abolition of serfdom. Therefore, we shall speak of it only in passing, only insofar as it is necessary to clarify the role assumed in this matter by our advanced journalism, at the head of which stood N. G. Chernyshevsky at that time. It is well known to everyone that this journalism hotly defended the interests of the peasants. Our author wrote article after article in which he championed the emancipation of the peasants with land and affirmed that the redemption of lands passing into peasant allotments could present no difficulty whatsoever for the government. He proved this proposition both through general theoretical considerations and through the most detailed specimen calculations...

If at the time of peasant emancipation our government forgot for not a single moment the advantages of the state treasury, then it gave very little thought to the interests of the peasants. In the redemption operation, exclusively fiscal and landlord interests were kept in view...

[57-59] It was not only on economic questions that Chernyshevsky had to conduct fierce polemics. And moreover, his opponents were not only liberal economists. The more influential the circle of the *Sovremennik* became in Russian literature,

NB*
*Sotsial-Demokrat* No. 1, p. 152
* Remarks underlined with slanting lines were written by V. I. Lenin in the upper corner of the page. Therefore, here and hereinafter, if it is impossible to determine exactly which passage the Leninist remark refers to, the entire text of the given page is provided. —Ed.
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